Skeptimediais a commentary on
mass media treatment of issues concerning science, the
paranormal, and the supernatural.

April 24, 2008.
According to the
Sunday Mirror, last year Britons spent £40 million on
online, phone and TV psychic services. That's probably a drop in
the bucket compared to what they spent on church membership. If
churches advertised that they could guarantee eternal life or
stress-free exorcisms, would they be violating the law in the
UK? Maybe.

The United Kingdom has a watchdog agency called the Advertising
Standards Authority (ASA) that has the power to limit freedom of
speech and freedom of trade. A recent
news article described how the ASA went after the
Doordarshan-India channel, which is “part of the diverse Rayat
Group, which has interests in India and the UK in education,
travel, retail and media.” It seems the TV channel ran an
advertisement that ran afoul of the rule that states:

With very limited
exceptions, advertisements for products or services concerned
with (a) the occult or (b) psychic practices are not acceptable.

The rule
states: "‘the
occult’ includes, for example, invocation of spirits, tarot and
attempts to contact the dead or demons"
and "psychic practices include astrology, horoscopes, palmistry
etc."

Exceptions are made for some
tarot ads and for newspaper horoscopes that are for
entertainment only. The rules also state that:

Products or services concerned with exorcism may
not be advertised since they are concerned with the occult in the
sense of being intended to counter it.

The justification for these restrictions on
freedom of speech and trade are given in terms of the obligation of
government to protect the young and "viewers who are emotionally
vulnerable" from harm by "potentially harmful and coercive groups,"
and to protect "inter-group relations" in a pluralist society.
Specifically, the ASA states that these rules are made:

to protect the young and safeguard the right of
parents to take responsibility for their children’s moral and
philosophical education without undue interference;

to protect viewers who are emotionally
vulnerable for personal reasons, such as sickness or bereavement;

and

to deny the persuasive power and emotional
impact of television advertising to potentially harmful or
coercive groups.

If television is such a powerful medium for
persuasion and manipulation of the young and the emotionally
vulnerable, one wonders why churches are allowed to own television
stations at all. In the U.S., religious groups are not barred from
owning TV networks. Pat Robertson's been running his
Christian Broadcasting Network since 1961 and Jim and Tammy Faye
Bakker started the PTL Network to promote their own version of
religious chicanery.*
After Jim went to prison, Jerry Falwell took over PTL and continued
making claims much more extravagant than any made on the Doordarshan-India
channel.

The on-screen text mentioned a phone number over
background graphics of a palm, Lord Ganesh, the moon, the earth
and horoscope and face-reading symbols.

DD-India added a disclaimer at the end of the
advertisement stating “Rayat Television Enterprises Ltd does not
take any responsibility & liability for any advice given, nor does
it necessarily subscribe to its views”.

The disclaimer is irrelevant. It should go without
saying that television stations don't necessarily advocate what they
advertise. Stations run the ads because they want to make money, not
because they want to promote any particular product or service. Of
course, if a church owns the television station, then one might
assume that at least the ads promoting businesses run by the church
itself were placed there not only to make money but to promote the
church as well.

This is not the first time a Pandit has been in
trouble with the ASA. Last October,
Venus TV ran an ad featuring Pandith Sri Guru Poojya Vijay
Sharmaji that stated:

Meet world famous astrologer and palm
reader from generations. Pandith is an expert in astrology. He can
tell you about marriage, employment, family, spousal conflict,
social business, financial problems, citizenship, health, wealth and
exam studies. Combines the power of palmistry, clairvoyance,
astrology and face-reading to give you a more complete reading.
Please contact Sri Guru Poojya Vijay Sharmaji ....

On-screen text added that Pandith is an "Expert in
Astrology with 99% Accurate Results in Palmistry and also Prediction
of Horoscope ... Born Gifted with Spiritual Powers let him help you
to Solve your Problems with his Expert knowledge." The text was
placed over background graphics of the solar system and
tarot cards.

The ASA ruled that the ad violated the rules noted above
regarding the occult and misleading advertising, and must not be
shown again.

Obviously, these rules restrict free speech and
free trade, but they are justified say those who make the rules
because they are needed to protect a certain segment of the
population from harm. They are meant to protect the young, the
emotionally vulnerable, and the gullible. These occult ads are not
forbidden on the ground that they are promoting nonsense or are
patently false. False or nonsensical speech is allowed as long as it
is not deceptive or likely to harm those who are deemed to need
protection.

The panderers of psychic woo in Britain will now
have to face another hurdle. Not only must they not advertise
psychic rubbish on the telly, they must back up their claims in ads,
posters, business cards, etc., with evidence that what they claim is
true. Otherwise, they must let the consumer know that they can't
guarantee the results.

Mediums may now have to issue disclaimers such as
"this is a scientific experiment, the results cannot be guaranteed"
before making contact with the other side.*

Legislating psychic rubbish goes back to the 18th
century in Britain. In 1735, the Witchcraft Act ended the practice
of executing witches. Those proclaiming supernatural powers were
henceforth to be punished with imprisonment or a fine. The
Witchcraft Act was superseded by the Fraudulent Mediums Act in 1951,
but the new law was rarely used.*
That Act is to be repealed next month and replaced by the European
Union's Unfair Commercial Practices Directive. No longer will
fraudulent intention have to be proved to convict psychic peddlers.
The psychic will have to prove she did not mislead or coerce
credulous consumers.*

The new regulations provide for a range of civil
and criminal penalties, including two years in prison in the most
serious cases.

I suppose it won't be long before someone sues the
Anglican Church for misleading credulous consumers. I'm not
predicting this, of course, and I hope I don't mislead anyone into
thinking that churches are vulnerable under the new law. That is not
something I know, nor do I claim to be able to predict how the law
will be applied, if it will be applied at all. I am merely
speculating and what I say here should be understood to be for
entertainment purposes only.

In any case, the psychics are not going to wait
to see how the new law is applied. They have started their own
organization, the Spiritual
Workers Association. That's right. The psychics in the UK are
now an organized religion, sort of. They say they're doing spiritual
work and are part of the
spiritualist
tradition. It's too bad those other prostitutes, the ones who
sell bodily pleasures, don't call themselves spiritual
workers instead of sex workers. They could claim that sex is
their holy communion and dare the law to touch them.

Samuel Johnson may be right in claiming that patriotism is the
last refuge of a scoundrel. He should have added: Religion is the first
refuge of a scoundrel.